INDIANAPOLIS — Despite a career-best performance by junior guard Alyssa Karel and a close matchup throughout, the Wisconsin women’s basketball team lost Saturday to Ohio State for the third time this season.
The Buckeye duo of Samantha Prahalis and Jantel Lavender combined for 56 points to propel top-seeded Ohio State to an 82-73 victory over Wisconsin in the semifinal round of the Big Ten Tournament in front of 7,471 fans at Conseco Fieldhouse.
Ohio State improved to 29-4 on the season and went 34-of-38 (89.5 percent) from the free-throw line compared to Wisconsin’s 14-of-19 (73.7 percent). The Badgers fell to 21-10 overall.
Karel led all players with a career-high 31 points for Wisconsin, going 10-of-15 from the field, including a perfect 5-for-5 from 3-point range and 6-of-7 from the free throw line. The junior guard was just four points shy of tying the Big Ten Tournament record of 35 points.
Junior forward Lin Zastrow finished with 14 points and five rebounds for the Badgers, while senior guard Teah Gant had 12 points, four boards, five assists, three blocks and one steal. Senior guard Rae Lin D’Alie had seven points, seven boards, three assists and one steal.
The game pitted the Big Ten’s top scoring offense in Ohio State (78.1 points per game) against the top-scoring defense in Wisconsin (55.1 points allowed per game).
Wisconsin led for most of the game until Prahalis hit a three with 9:19 remaining to give Ohio State a 62-60 lead, the team’s first lead since holding a 2-0 advantage just 14 seconds into the game.
Neither team pulled away by more than three points over the next 5:27. Lavender went to the line with 3:52 remaining and made both to put OSU up 73-72. The Buckeyes rattled off three more buckets to string together a 7-0 run.
Karel went 1-of-2 from the line with 1:34 remaining and trimmed the deficit to five at 78-73, but Ohio State made four straight free throws to seal the victory. The Badgers missed their last six shots of the game as OSU outscored UW 11-1 over the final 3:52.
Both teams had seven turnovers, tying Wisconsin’s season low. The Buckeyes out-rebounded the Badgers 39-31.
Wisconsin shot 26-of-57 (45.6 percent) from the field to Ohio State’s 21-of-54 (38.9 percent). The difference in the game was free throws, though, as the Buckeyes got 34 points from the line, including 11-for-11 by Prahalis.
The Badgers led 41-37 after a tight first half. The score was tied six different times in the opening half, but the lead only changed once — when Tara Steinbauer hit a three to put the Badgers up 3-2 just 31 seconds into the game.
Wisconsin’s largest lead was seven at 41-34 with 1:20 remaining in the opening half. UW used a 9-2 run to break a 32-32 tie with 4:03 remaining to take the seven-point lead before the Buckeyes used a three-point play by Tayler Hill to come within four to close the half.
Wisconsin shot 16-of-29 (55.2 percent) from the field in the first half, including 4-of-5 (80 percent) from 3-point range. Meanwhile, Ohio State was 12-of-29 (41.4 percent) and 5-of-10 (50 percent) from beyond the arc.
Karel led all players with 14 points in the first half, while Prahalis had 11 points and four boards for OSU. D’Alie posted seven points and six rebounds.
The Badgers opened the second half with a layup by Zastrow to extend their lead back to six, but Ohio State quickly tied it up at 46-46 with 16:17 remaining.
Wisconsin answered with a 9-2 run, capped by a Karel 3-pointer with 13:18 remaining to tie UW’s largest lead of the game at seven, 55-48.
A 7-1 OSU run cut Wisconsin’s lead to one at 58-57 with 10:33 on the clock. The Buckeyes took the lead on a Prahalis trey with 9:19 remaining and Wisconsin could not regain more than a one-point lead. The Badgers’ last lead was 72-71 with 4:17 to play.
–UWBadgers.com
